1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a conveyer machine serving as, e.g., an escalator, a moving footpath, or a goods-assorting apparatus installed in buildings, terminals, footbridges, outdoor works or the like, and more particularly, to a conveyer machine having a forward conveyer part and a backward conveyer part continuous therewith.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, various conveyer machines are employed for transportation of passengers and goods. For instance, an escalator for conveying passengers from a lower or upper floor to an upper or lower floor is known. The conventional escalator comprises a plurality of steps which are connected to left and right endless chains each stretched between upper and lower sprocket wheels disposed at the upper and lower floors, and which are supported by left and right guide rails each formed into a loop-shape as viewed in a vertical plane. The endless chains are circularly moved around the sprocket wheels with rotation of these wheels, to cause the steps which the passengers get on and off to move from the lower or upper floor to the upper or lower floor along upper rail portions of the guide rails. Each step is inverted when it reaches the upper or lower floor, and then is moved back to the lower or upper floor along lower rail portions of the guide rails, with the step kept inverted.
According to this arrangement wherein the steps are inverted during the backward movement, it is inevitably necessary to provide an escalator for transportation from the lower floor to the upper floor and another escalator for transportation from the upper floor to the lower floor separately and independently from each other. Further, in the inverted section, the steps cannot be utilized for transportation. This is inefficient.
Moreover, the conventional escalator is heavy in weight, and is hence limited in utilization. Usually, the conventional escalator of a type where each step permits one passenger to ride thereon has a step width of approximately 500 mm, and the escalator whose step permits two passengers to ride thereon has a step width of approximately 1,000 mm. The two passenger type escalator has its entire width of approximately 1,200 mm, including the width of moving handrails. Thus, if an installation space is small, it is impossible to install even an ascent escalator together with a descent staircase, and hence both of ascent and descent escalators cannot be installed.
A moving footpath for horizontally conveying passengers is also known. However, the conventional moving footpath has the same drawbacks as those encountered in the conventional escalator. In particular, it is required to provide both a moving footpath for transportation from a first position to a second position and another moving footpath for transportation from the second position to the first position separately and independently from each other.